LONGEST RAILWAY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 16 November 1928, Page 9

LONGEST RAILWAY

: LINE IN SANTA FE Despite its early construction difficulties in an unsettled country, the Santa Fe Railroad has grown rapidly since 1858 and is now the longest railroad in the world, states the "New [York Times." Due to a recent trans- | action combining the Orient with the Santa Fe, ijie Santa Fo now surpasses the trans-Siberian system and tho Southern .Pacific in mileage. In 1858 progressive'pioneers of Kansas had plans for what.is now the Santa Fe Railroad. It was then called the Atchison-Topeka Road aiid was only a line between Atchison, Kan., on the Missouri River, and Topeka, Kan., on the Kaw. Both- of these towns had steamship lines. The five years following saw no improvement on tlio line because of the Civil War. After the Civil War now hope of completing the project was given to the promoters by a land grant of some C4OO acres per mile. It was then that the new title of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa JTc was given to the line. But land was regarded as something of a "frozen asset" in Kansas. Even at the low price of 1.25 dollars an aero it could not be easily sold. The railroad was almost "land poor," and rail construction'required cash. By-the terms of the land grant, the entire line i had to bo completed to the■' western border of the State by June, 1873. By August, 1872, only sixty-one miles had been completed. : Tf the job were to be finished, 400 miles would havo to be completed in" | ton mouths. And if the terms of the | grant were not complied with, (lie j company would face bankruptcy. Battling against discouragements and sometimes without reasonable hope, [ the owners of the company laid 340 miles of rails and reached the Colorado line on time. Work was delayed at the boundary, however, because of the panic of 1573. Carrying on to the Pacific Coast, I tapping the Southwest, the line was extended into the Rio Grande Valley in ISBO in the direction of Albuquerque, N.M. Work progressed rapidly here. To-day the insignificant fifty-mile I line started between Atchison and Topplca belts a large' part of the United States.